Sumer is icumen in

[oloriel]

Since yesterday, the cats have caught three blindworms.
Fortunately blindworms are harder to kill than mice (or, apparently, bats - don't ask me how Mr Darcy managed to catch a bat, I mean, srsly, wtf?) and so far I've been able to snatch them from the cats and take them back to (relative) safety. We have very pretty blindworms around here, too, with pale scales with darker lines on them and very bright eyes. One of them shat all over my hands. Nice way to show its gratitude.

Today I found six eggs - tiny white eggs with brown speckles on them - in the grass while working. Well, five eggs and one smashed eggshell, really. They came with the remains of a nest wall made of green moss, sheep and horse hair and one reddish brown feather. That either fell out of a hollow in the walnut tree (which would imply sparrows or tits), or from some branch of the walnut tree (which would imply goldfinch), but search though I did I couldn't find any trace of the nest.
So now I have five tiny little eggs in my keeping.
Trying to breed them is probably pointless - they're so small, in constant danger from the cats, and aside from perhaps an infrared lamp I have no way of keeping them warm for up to two weeks, and even if that worked, how would I feed them and clean them and teach them to fly? So really, it's bound to fail.

I suppose I'll put them out for Pippin the Hedgehog. (Fun fact aside: When I was asked at work whether the hedgehog had a name and I said Yes, Pippin, the other student said "Oooh, a hobbit hedgehog!" When Jörg's mom asked whether the hedgehog had a name and I said Yes, Pippin, she said "Oh, like Pippin the Short?" Generation gap!) Hedgehogs love eggs, and if I hadn't found them, Pippin would've found them anyway (they were lying about four meters away from where he currently seems to spend his days) so he may as well eat 'em. *sighs*